He did it with two holding midfielders, positions that Sherwood has been barely able to disguise his disdain for over the last few weeks.

You just wonder whether Monday night's performance - and the role in it played by Nemanja Matic and David Luiz - might have convinced the Spurs boss that there could yet be a part to play during the second half of the season for Etienne Capoue.

The France midfielder has been out of favour at White Hart Lane, partly because of the emergence of young Nabil Bentaleb and partly because of Sherwood's belief that the holding midfield role is overblown in English football.

He has a point to a extent. Arsenal beat Spurs to a Champions League place last season without an orthodox holding midfielder in the team. (And no, Mikel Arteta is not a holding midfielder. Nor is Jack Wilshere).

But Chelsea's epic Etihad win was due in large part to the success of Matic and Luiz in preventing City from pouring through the middle of their defence.

All of which brings in Capoue. Napoli moved in for the French midfielder , who has seven caps for his country and 174 appearances for Toulouse under his belt, just before the deadline but refused to meet the £14million asking price set by Spurs chairman Daniel Levy.

Understandably so given the fact that the player was signed for £9million only six months ago and now cannot get into the Tottenham team.

Either way, it means Capoue, who looked nailed on for a move to Italy to play under Rafa Benitez, remains at north London.

That could work in Sherwood's favour. Not because he should suddenly revert to the safety-first tactics that dragged the team down under Andre Villas-Boas.

More because it just might convince the Spurs boss that Capoue could yet have a role to play in a partnership alongside either Paulinho or Sandro. Especially against the likes of Chelsea themselves at Stamford Bridge and Liverpool away.

As a consequence, keeping hold of the 25-year-old could be one of the best bits of business that Spurs have done in the January window.

Ditto the decision not to bring in Dimitar Berbatov.

Yes, Sherwood is staking Tottenham's top-four prospects - and his chances of landing the job full-time - on his decision not to recruit another striker in the January transfer window.

On the other hand it could be seen as good management, with Emmanuel Adebayor able to trust his boss's insistence that he retains his faith and that he remains the man to fire the club into the top four.

(Photo: Reuters)

This column started out in the first camp but is currently in the second.

But it was AVB's decision not to utilise Adebayor that cost him his job. It has been Sherwood's decision to bring the striker in from the cold that has given Spurs a real chance of beating Everton and Liverpool to a top-four slot.

Prior to last week's destruction at the hands of Manchester City and the 1-1 draw at Hull on Saturday, Spurs had won five out of six League games following AVB's sacking and Adebayor's return to the side.

In those games Adebayor had scored a total of five goals. Sherwood clearly felt last month that bringing in Berbatov now - as Levy wanted to - would only overcomplicate things and threaten Adebayor's resurgence.

You can also see his point that a new striker would need time to adapt, defeating the object of bringing him in. Spurs already have a £26million striker trying to do that right now.

It is not as if the club are without options. If Sherwood decides to go with one up top as he did last week, he can play Christian Eriksen just off him - or maybe even either Nacer Chadli or Erik Lamela.

It could even be the case that Soldado himself finds his stride in time for the business end of the season.

Either way, while Tottenham have seen less action in this transfer window that a politician wondering where his wife is, you can understand why less is more for Sherwood.

Throwing money at the problem isn't always the answer.

Sherwood has set about proving that from the start. Now he is intent on setting up a big finish.